I attended my first rally yesterday as a concerned citizen community activist environmental extremist. The rally was for the Coal River Wind project and was held in front of the capital in Charleston.
I’m not going to talk too much about the project itself because we all know it is the right thing to do. I do want to talk about the rally and the people dedicated to the project. What an inspiring group of people. I feel privileged to call them my friends and hope that I can show half as much passion as each and every one of them show on a daily basis.
At one point in the rally, after presenting the petition to the Governor’s aide, a few residents from around the Coal River Valley presented their thoughts and views on MTR and the wind project. Although they were all passionate and something the Governor should have been present to hear, a couple of quotes really stuck with me.
One fella came up on stage and started his monoloque by saying, “even in the 60’s, we knew the answer was blowin’ in the wind.” (Sorry, but I don’t know his name.) The other quote I really liked was from Larry Gibson who said, “if you put a windmill up and you don’t like it you can always take it back down. If you take down a mountain, you can never put it back up.”
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For some of us, part of the decision to start and continue fighting mountaintop removal is based on how we view the mountains. I look at a mountain and see life. A living breathing ecosystem from the trees right down to the creek lizard. Mountaintop removal kills everything in it’s path. Sometimes, brutally…
Since I’m finding out more and more of mountaintop removal coal is being exported or used in the steel making process and not for keeping the light’s on, in my eyes the practice has risen to a new level of senselessness.
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I’m not, nor have I ever been, an enemy to the coal miner. Like a lot of my friends, my father and his father before him were coal miners. I’m proud to be the son of a coal miner. With that being said, I have no problem with a monument to the coal miner at the capital complex. I do, however, think it shows clearly the mindset of our state government when the side of the monument is adorned with a plaque showing mountaintop removal coal mining.
With the destruction and resulting controversy over the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, I think the plaque is in serious bad taste.
Dear Denny,
Nice site.. never knew it existed until I googled “carbon neutral coal” and saw the article you have on your site.
I’m writing to get you guys to take a look at my letter to the editor in the Coal valley news.It should be interesting because it’s about this exact subject written today.
I, too, was at the rally and I agree that it was inspiring to see so many people who were willing to stand up for the mountains and for the sustainability of the Coal River Valley. I feel it was in very poor taste that the Governor didn’t attend, considering the rally was advertised well in advance, but rather, the Governor decided his time would be better spent campaigning for an office that polls show him ahead by at least 25 percentage points. That to me, illustrates how his blantant disregard the people of this state. I also believe We The People of West Virginia need to show our appreciation for Governor Manchin by sending him back to Farmington come November.
It just makes good business sense to construct the Coal River Wind Farm, the state would benefit from long-term jobs, and the last mountain in the Coal River valley would be saved.
With the Wind Farm, Massey Energy would also be able to diversify their portfolio, and make a killing on governmental wind subsidies if only they would fold up their arrogance card and lay it aside for a few moments. What would it hurt to at least try? For years they have stated that the radical environmentalists needed to show a viable alternative to MTR, and now that they have…Massey wants no part of it. So much for Massey’s recent statement of their committment to Social Responsibility.
In closing, I am heartened that there are like-minded folks out there who are fed up with the status quo, and are taking a stand for the future of southern West Virginia.
Thanks for posting this Denny.
I can’t stand you crazy environmental extremists. You want mountain top removal to end just so your precious children won’t be poisoned and your ancestral homeland won’t be destroyed. Who cares if untold animals are burried alive? There is profit to be made. Of course, a wind farm would be better for the community and the world, but would it be better for Don Blankenship? NO! What is more important, you being able to breathe without inhaling silica dust or Don being able to visit the French Riviera? You are so selfish. And if you don’t be quiet and let your history, present, and future be destroyed so Don’s stock will go up, then you my friend are an environmental extremist. You make me sick.
(nice site!)